A Murder Unmentioned

November 5, 2018
Australian author Gentill’s enjoyable sixth Rowland Sinclair mystery (after 2018’s Gentlemen Formerly Dressed) explores the early life of her amateur sleuth. When Rowland was 15, his father, Henry, died under mysterious circumstances. Now, in 1933—13 years later—the gun that killed Henry has been discovered on the grounds of the Sinclair family home in New South Wales, and the investigation into the crime has been reopened. Rowland arrives back at the estate, where his straitlaced brother, Wilfred, has taken up residence, and the authorities are soon questioning each of them about his possible role in Henry’s death. Rowland’s “Leninist friends”—an arty pack that includes a landscape painter, a sculptress, and a chap with poetic leanings—show up to provide moral and investigative support. Each chapter begins with a brief excerpt from an Australian publication, such as the Camperdown Chronicle, that offers insights into the popular culture of the times. Fans of historical mysteries will find a lot to savor.

November 15, 2018
A murder in the past comes back to haunt a socially prominent Australian family.Rowland Sinclair, an artist with leftist friends and a free-wheeling lifestyle, is the bane of his conservative brother Wilfred's existence in the 1930s. During extensive renovations to the garden at Wilfred's country estate, a lake is drained, revealing the gun that killed their father 13 years before. Even as the police, encouraged by an anonymous tip, suspect Rowly, Lucy Bennett, encouraged by Wilfred's wife, decides that she's in love with him. He's not interested, so he alienates her father by showing off his nude paintings, mostly of his housemate, Edna Higgins, an independent woman he loves but has little hope of persuading to marry him. Lucy soon finds another Sinclair to love: Rowly's cousin Arthur, a stuffy solicitor who, cut out of his father's will, depends on Wilfred's good graces for his cushy lifestyle. Although he was only 15 when his father died, Rowly hated his father, who often had him badly beaten by his farm manager, Charles Hayden. His housemates all thought his father died of natural causes; the family shipped Rowly off to England right after the funeral; and he never talked about his unhappy youth. Now Wilfred asks Rowly to return to the family home to discuss problems old and new. If it weren't for the return of Hayden, who insists that Wilfred had a row with his father because he threatened to cut him out of his will, the police might have given up. When Hayden is found beaten to death, Rowly is arrested, and Wilfred pulls every string to get him released until his case is heard. Rowly and his friends must find the real killer in order to rescue the family from scandal and himself from a prison sentence.A charmingly complex hero (Gentlemen Formerly Dressed, 2018, etc.) whose adventures continue to highlight many worldly problems between the great wars.

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December 1, 2018
After returning from a disturbing visit to Nazi Germany in 1934, Australian aristocrat Rowland Sinclair is diverted from warning his countrymen about Hitler's fascist regime when he becomes a murder suspect. It starts when the gun that killed his father 13 years earlier is found on the family estate, raising questions about the long-held contention that Henry Sinclair was shot by an unknown burglar who fled the scene. Then Charlie Hayden, the manager whom Henry ordered to brutally flog Rowland when his son was a boy, is found beaten to death on one of the Sinclair properties. Both murders cast suspicion on Rowland, but he and his older brother, Wilfred, suspect one another of killing their father. Even with plot elements of murder, revenge, deceit, and kidnapping, Gentill keeps the atmosphere from turning oppressively dark with her stylish prose and the buoyant presence of Rowland's three housemates and his six-year-old nephew, Ernie. This sixth entry in the Rowland Sinclair series, which blends historical figures seamlessly with fictional ones, clarifies and advances the family dynamics of its appealing protagonist, which should delight fans and win new readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)